December and Early January Programs Include “Cruising J-Town” Finale and Oshogatsu Family Festival

Editors please note: JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo.

PSA

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) celebrates the finale of Cruising J-Town in Pasadena and hosts a film screening about the speed shop Mooneyes at the Democracy Center. East West Players’ 60th anniversary commemorative event, Discover Nikkei’s Nikkei Uncovered V: a poetry reading, and JANM’s 2026 Oshogatsu Family Festival lead us into the new year.

Film Screening—The Craft of Speed: A Documentary About Mooneyes
December 2, 2025
7 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
Democracy Center at JANM
$5 General Admission
Dive into the thirty-year story of Mooneyes with this documentary about two Japanese and Japanese American hot rodders who saved the iconic American speed parts company, built the brand MOONEYES, and popularized hot rod culture in Asia. Following the screening is a conversation with Craft of Speed producer, writer, and director Ming Lai, Mooneyes USA President Chico Kodama, and curator of Cruising J-Town, Oliver Wang.

Stages of Our Stories: 60 Years of Asian American Theater at East West Players
Saturday, December 6
2 p.m.–4 p.m. PST
Democracy Center at JANM
$20 General Admission
Mark six decades of artistic excellence and community impact with East West Players (EWP) and JANM at this commemorative event. The program will highlight pivotal moments from EWP’s history through excerpts from six landmark plays—one from each decade since the company’s founding in 1965. The evening promises to be a moving tribute to the EWP artists that have shaped the Asian American theater landscape.

Discover Nikkei’s Nikkei Uncovered V: a poetry reading
December 9, 2025
6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.
Virtual Only
Free; registration is required to receive the Zoom link
Join JANM’s Discover Nikkei for the fifth annual virtual poetry reading with a powerful lineup of poets previously featured in Discover Nikkei’s Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column, hosted by traci kato-kiriyama, author of Navigating With(out) Instruments. This event will feature poets Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, Erica Isomura, and Syd Westley who will reflect on writing in this current time.

Cruising J-Town Finale and Curator Tour
December 14, 2025
12 p.m.–5 p.m.
ArtCenter’s Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery 
Free
Celebrate the Japanese American community in Southern California car culture with the finale and last curator tour for JANM’s exhibition, Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community. Join the drop-in tour with exhibition curator Oliver Wang at 12 p.m. and stay for other special events including short documentary film screenings and more!

2026 Oshogatsu Family Festival—Year of the Horse
January 11, 2026
11 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center Plaza
Free
Celebrate the New Year and welcome the Year of the Horse during the Japanese American National Museum’s 2026 Oshogatsu Family Festival at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center! The 2026 festival includes free crafts, performances, and cultural activities for all ages. One of the festival highlights is a mochitsuki performance where sweet sticky rice is pounded into a smooth and elastic dough called mochi. 

###

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over one hundred exhibitions onsite while traveling forty exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @jamuseum.